Disloyal - Divine Miasmata

Angry Metal Guy

Polish death metal quintet Disloyal have been active since the late ‘90s yet have managed to escape the searing Angry Metal Eye up until now. This may have something to do with their genre of choice; black and post-metal are the Polish flavors of choice ‘round these parts. Or it could have to do with the looming shadows of their illustrious countrymen: Vader, Decapitated, Hate, and the increasingly out-of-place elephant in the room, Behemoth. Whatever the reason, I aim to rectify our oversight and give Disloyal their well-deserved moment in the charnel house spotlight. The band promise to deal in authentic Polish Death Metal, but peppered words like “catchy,” “atmospheric,” and “groovy” into their promo language, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect at the onset of Divine Miasmata. Pulling back the curtain on the eponymous album opener, would I find a hulking specter of the past starved for sustenance, or another carrion eater picking at the bones of giants long departed?

It’s clear from the outset that Disloyal know what kind of death metal to throw at you, the unsuspecting listener. After a surprisingly effective cinematic introduction—it’s rare that these tracks don’t feel shoehorned—you should expect to find explosions of teeth-baring tremolo and running-off-the-rails blasting, sewn together in a rough, patchwork fashion so the listener is kept on the edge of their seat. The album weaves a blasphemous, anti-religious theme, and the inclusion of spoken word and choral chants (“Divine Miasmata,” “Betrayed Faith”) and a musty, cavernous production greatly help set Divine Miasmata’s scene. Konstantin Kolesnikov utilizes a deep, rumbling roar that’s a bit one-note, but comfortably idiosyncratic, and the leads—they’re generally too short to be called solos—by main songwriter Artyom Serdyuk are impressive, pushing the bounds of tonality with leaping, highly chromatic figurations. All the performances here are professionally executed, and combined with the midnight-in-the-graveyard production Divine Miasmata leaves a strong impression, indicative of a band confident in their vision and voice.

Divine Miasmata by Disloyal

Disloyal retain all the character of the brutal Pol-death pantheon while decorating the edges with sounds both modern and foreign. While you’ll find the traditional machine gun blasts and chuggy lines in cuts like “The Black Pope” and “Stella Peccatorum,” Disloyal stand ready with new weapons hidden up their sleeve. There’s dissodeath style harmonies and atonal, jagged figures in the guitars (“Silent Revolution”), hairpin tempo/meter shifts with little care for transitions (“Betrayed Faith”), mathcore odd time figures (“Ravens of Starvation”), and a couple outro riffs ripped from the pages of American groove metal (“The Black Pope,” “1347-1352”). All of these musical diversions should sound a jumbled mess, but the band wisely limits the number of riffs per song, extracting every once of venom and steel from each passage before moving to the next. The final product is a proudly Polish death metal record with prog and groove flourishes, paying homage to their predecessors while blazing new paths forward.

The band make a strong statement for their style, but there are still areas that could use tightening. Some of the best moments on the album end up feeling like afterthoughts when they should be highlights. The riffs ending “The Black Pope,” and “1347-1352” are neck-snappers, but they stand out awkwardly when used as a fadeout. There are two passages where the tempo and chromaticism relent and the music breathes—in the choral section of “Betrayed Faith” and the excellent denouement of closer “The Ascension of Abaddon”—but amongst the 50-minute runtime I’m disappointed there weren’t more asides like this to break up the chaos. And speaking of runtime, while I mentioned the band judiciously handles the number of riffs in their songs, some of these patterns run just past their natural finish line (see the ends of “Stella Peccatorum” and “Betrayed Faith”).

I’m happy to report that Disloyal have quietly released a quality death metal record that punches well above its weight. It takes some time to get used to the cramped production and the unrelenting nature of the lengthy, seamless compositions, but once you accept the invitation, Divine Miasmata has a world of thinking man’s brutality in store for you. Anyone yearning for the good ol’ days of Decapitated and Behemoth should give their lesser-known countrymen a spin, and fans of the proggier, blackened side of metal should pop in here as well. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for the next record from these gents, and will gladly press play on Divine Miasmata the next time I need a blasphemous tongue-lashing.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s
Label: Black Lion Records | Bandcamp
Websites: facebook.com | Bandcamp
Releases Worldwide: July 26, 2024

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